[FRIAM] NYTimes.com: The Problems in Modeling Nature, With Its Unruly Natural Tendencies

[Phil Henshaw]

What you can see is the public interest 'hook' in the approach the book
took, i.e. 'science is just too complicated, let's do without'.  There
are indeed a lot of 'solutions' for things that are getting too
complicated for practicality, but It's unusual for the Science Times to
offer that opinion without mentioning the learning process that science
is.    Well, that is, except that that's virtually the only kind of
coverage the Times or other media give to complexity and natural
systems, i.e. wacko off beat references.    Really, what gets in the
paper on the evolution of change in our world?   Nothing at all it
seems.   
 
I recall a flurry of public interest in the 'singularity' when computers
were to equal human minds, and a bunch of other garbage, but not a thing
about humanity being an eco-system and causation working by loops of
relationships that develop creatively.    I wrote the managing editor at
the Times just last week complaining about how all the  public media
seem in deep denial about the major scientific revolution of the 20th
century, i.e. that nature's not following formulas.    Well, yes, the
observation that everything happens by complex processes has not been
made into a simple story that everyone involved can agree on yet, but
we're looking at real causation and making progress, and the media
should be picking up on that.    I think they're not because it upsets
old views, so denial is the better choice.
 
 

Phil Henshaw                       ¸¸¸¸.·´ ¯ `·.¸¸¸¸
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
680 Ft. Washington Ave 
NY NY 10040                       
tel: 212-795-4844                 
e-mail: pfh at synapse9.com          
explorations: www.synapse9.com <http://www.synapse9.com/>     

-----Original Message-----
From: Pamela McCorduck [mailto:pamela at well.com] 
Sent: Friday, February 23, 2007 11:05 AM
To: sy at synapse9.com; The Friday Morning Applied Complexity Coffee Group
Subject: Re: [FRIAM] NYTimes.com: The Problems in Modeling Nature, With
Its Unruly Natural Tendencies


I know the journalist, and know her as very thoughtful. I wonder if
stuff got edited out of that piece by someone less thoughtful.


On Feb 22, 2007, at 10:03 PM, Phil Henshaw wrote:



Yea I saw that, and was surprised the journalist had no counter views to
offer.   Of course there are good shortcuts, of course the divergence of
natural systems from models is not just simple statistical error.   It
sounds a little like the success of his method, though, may have more to
do with his not being able to measure his errors though.
 
 

Phil Henshaw                       ¸¸¸¸.·´ ¯ `·.¸¸¸¸
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
680 Ft. Washington Ave 
NY NY 10040                      
tel: 212-795-4844                 
e-mail: pfh at synapse9.com          
explorations: www.synapse9.com   


-----Original Message-----
From: friam-bounces at redfish.com [mailto:friam-bounces at redfish.com] On
Behalf Of tom at jtjohnson.com
Sent: Tuesday, February 20, 2007 11:44 PM
To: friam at redfish.com
Subject: [FRIAM] NYTimes.com: The Problems in Modeling Nature,With Its
Unruly Natural Tendencies

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<spacer.gif>This page was sent to you by:  tom at jtjohnson.com 

Message from sender:
"The Problems in Modeling Nature, With Its Unruly Natural Tendencies"
fyi. Tom Johnson 

SCIENCE   | February 20, 2007 
Books on Science:  The Problems in Modeling Nature, With Its Unruly
Natural Tendencies 
By CORNELIA DEAN 
A new book argues that nature is too complex and depends on too many
processes that are poorly understood or little monitored to be modeled
using computer programs. 
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